It occurs to me that what facebook and instagram want are not the active users, but those who are passive - like flipping through a magazine without really caring what's there. I deleted Flipbook because it didn't want to serve me what I wanted to see but instead fed me stuff from its algorithms. The first time I opened FB's newsfeed it served me an ad about the Royal Family intended to denigrate. That's not an attractive product.
While something new might crop up in an algorithm that'd be interesting, it hasn't been worth my effort to dig and change settings, and jump through all the other hoops to see what I want rather than what these media outlets want me to see. The user experience is designed to demote me to passive user. I guess these types of media are made to provide the same kind of passive entertainment as someone'd get flipping through cable stations on TV with a remote.
They say we are not the product but clearly they serve other masters. Have we become the slaves of this new digital world?
